08/09/04 "American
Progress" -- President Bush made a lot of
promises during his 2000 presidential campaign. The record
shows it was all talk.

HEALTH
CARE RHETORIC

HEALTH CARE REALITY

"There are 43 million uninsured Americans  4
million more than when the current administration took
office. George W. Bush will reverse this trend by making
health insurance affordable for hard-working, low-income
families." [Source: Bush-Cheney
2000 website]

In the first two years Bush was in office, the number
of uninsured American increased by nearly four million.
Since Bush took office, health insurance premiums have
risen by an average rate of 12.5 percent per year.
According to a major study, "widespread adoption
[of Bush's major health care plan] could drive up the
annual deductible paid by workers." [Source: U.S.
Census Bureau, 7/8/04; Kaiser
Family Foundation, 4/04; USA
Today, 4/25/04]

"George W. Bush will establish the 'Healthy
Communities Innovation Fund' to provide $500 million in
grants over five years to fund innovative projects
addressing targeted health risks, such as childhood
diabetes."

For the past three years, the Department of Defense
has requested that Congress exempt it from environmental
laws and regulations like the Clean Air Act of 1970.
The exemptions were requested despite the fact that the
Environmental Protection Agency has thus far declined to
apply the policies to the military training facilities
in question.

President Bush has frozen the maximum Pell Grant at
$4,050 in his FY 2005 education budget. This is the
third year in a row that Bush has frozen or cut the
maximum Pell Grant. [Source: House
Committee on Education and the Work Force 2/2/04]

WELFARE
RHETORIC

WELFARE REALITY

"To encourage states to help families in crisis,
Governor Bush will provide states an additional $1
billion over five years for preventative services to
keep children in, or return them to, their homes
whenever safely possible." [Source: Bush-Cheney
2000  Child Welfare website]

Bush has proposed allowing states to use the federal
funds currently earmarked for foster care room-and-board
payments to be used for preventative services. In
exchange, states must accept a spending cap on the
amount of foster care funding they receive.
[Source: Philadelphia
Inquirer, 3/24/04]

Energy, Nominations, National
Security

On everything from energy, to judicial nominations, to
nuclear nonproliferation policy, President Bush has broken his
promises to the American people.

ENERGY RHETORIC

ENERGY REALITY

"To provide energy assistance to low-income
Households and Address Short-Term Supply Threats,
Governor Bush will expand the Low Income Home Energy
Assistance Program (LIHEAP) by seeking the release of
$155 million, and directing a portion of oil and gas
royalty payments to the program, costing $1 billion over
ten years." [Source: Bush-Cheney
2000  Energy website]

Bush's first budget, for the 2002 fiscal year, cut
LIHEAP funding by $300 million as compared with the
previous year, despite higher unemployment and a colder
winter. [Source: CBS,
12/11/02]

When Democrats objected to the nomination of William
Pryor to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the
White House stood by its allies who leveled charges of
anti-Catholic bias at the Democrats. When Sen.
Patrick Leahy confronted Vice President Cheney about the
impropriety of this charge on the Senate floor, Cheney
civilly told him to "F*** off." [Source: CBS,
6/25/04]

NUCLEAR
PROLIFERATION RHETORIC

NUCLEAR PROLIFERTION REALITY

"In an act of foresight and statesmanship,
[Senator Lugar and Senator Sam Nunn in 1991] realized
that existing Russian nuclear facilities were in danger
of being compromised. The next president must press for
an accurate inventory of all this material. [George W.
Bush will] ask the Congress to increase substantially
our assistance to Russia in dismantling as many of their
weapons as possible, as quickly as possible."
[Source: Bush-Cheney
2000  Foreign Policy website]

Presidential candidate George W. Bush promised to be a fiscal
conservative, and not destroy the surplus that had been created
during the 1990s. But as the record shows, he has overseen the
worst budget deterioration in modern American history  and
misled the country about who will receive his tax cuts.

Since assuming office, President Bush has failed to
veto a single bill, despite the enormous amount of pork
that has crossed his desk. Even conservatives are
getting frustrated. The Heritage Foundation
recently wrote, "Budget discipline clearly isn't a
priority of this administration, so why pretend it will
get tough on frivolous measures like these?"

Millionaires received an average tax cut of $123,000.
Those in the bottom quintile of earners received an
average tax cuts of $27. Those in the second to bottom
quintile received an average cut of $317. [Source: CBPP,
4/23/04, p. 17]

DEFICIT
RHETORIC

DEFICIT REALITY

"As President, Governor Bush will pay the debt
down to a historically low level."

As of July 30, the national debt stood at
$7,316,567,571,232.89, a record high. This year's
budget will also create a record deficit: $445 billion,
according to the White House. [Source: Treasury
Department, 8/3/04, Reuters,
7/31/04]

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